Great Midwest Slotcar Adventure!

Our last stop was the home of Dave Dobner. Since I first seen the photos of his track it has been one of my goals to go there and race on his excellent routed track and also check out his vintage collection.

The photos do not do this track justice, and is one of the nicest slot car tracks you could ever race on in my opinion. Below  you see Lee, Rich and our host trade paint a little with a variety of cars. Lee dropped his Vanquish McLaren on the track and was gone...he has that car tuned wonderfully. These 3 guys can really DRIVE these little machines...it is more fun than you think watching them run that close.

As mentioned, Dave has a vast collection of vintage cars and items that would take all day to go through. Here we see his display cases and a few items he allowed us to play with. Between him, Rich and Lee...not to mention Joel...I have a bad case of "Basement Envy"! While we raced we checked in on the Le Mans race and consumed about 4 or 5 pounds of chips and dip.

Speaking of food...you cannot race on an empty tank can you? Rich showed us his cooking skills with Slot-A-Bobs off the grill. After we had a few of these, we were ready to get "serious". The variety of models we raced is more than I can list here, but managed to take photos of a few of the highlights.

From Whisper-Jets to brand new Scalextric and Carrera cars we raced them all. Those Whisper-Jets above were more fun than I thought they would be and we had a IROC mini-series with them. Can you guess who came in last? (Of course it was me). The new Scaley TVR was a very big surprise as it was smooth as silk...and even ran well without silicones. They say that running non-magnet like we were exposes the faults of the models today...well...what can I say? That car ran very nicely and it was determined all it needed was silicones to improve performance.

Some of the models Dave has just blew me away. I am a big Batmobile fan and when I seen his model, it had to hit the track! Among other items, the kit shown below of the MPC is mint condition...never opened. For some strange reason Dave would not let me open it and build it...wonder why?

One of the big stars though was the new Carrera NASCARS. The reason behind that? With doing nothing more than adding silicones, this model was amazingly quiet and smooth and really smoked on his track. While they were taking turns trashing that model...I was still drooling over his collections!

I want to thank Dave and his wife for putting up with us and allowing us to mess up his basement. We spent all day there and didn't manage to leave until very late...wonder why? If your ever in the Detroit area...drop Dave a line here in the Vintage Section of Home Racing World and stop by for a visit. Dave created this section and manages the vintage department, and we appreciate his time and efforts to help the enthusiasts out there. Without his help...I wouldn't have it!

To sum it all up, if you have not taken a trip like this...do so. The fun of our hobby is different for many, but simply getting together with good friends and racing these little machines just can't be beat in my eyes. In one day we talked AND raced more than I could ever show you here.

Thanks to Lee, Dave and Rich for making this trip some of the most fun I have ever had in this hobby.

- Harry